County commissioners have hit crunch time this week, as final discussions about the proposed 2017-18 budget are taking place.

Last week saw commissioners clarify with county department heads any questions about each department’s budget. Monday night, both department heads and outside agencies were brought in to make short presentations about any additional funding requests exceeding funding provided in the 2016-17 budget. Outside agencies are any non-county entities from charitable nonprofits to municipalities located in Beaufort County that are seeking county funding.

Thursday, commissioners will sit down to a workshop to work on the proposed budget, negotiating what will be funded and how much.

At the heart of the 2017-18 proposed budget is county Manager Brian Alligood’s recommendation that the county take out a $3 million loan to fulfill maintenance and construction obligations for county facilities. Projects include new roofs for several county facilities, including the building in which the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office is housed. During Hurricane Irene in 2011, the Oakland Building was inundated with leaks, putting at risk 911 communications center operations and its equipment. Another project includes $500,000 to bring the Beaufort County Courthouse up to its original fire-code standards — the building’s lack of compliance only recently discovered after the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services threatened to close the courthouse basement detention center because it does not adhere to acceptable fire standards.

While some commissioners said they are on board with borrowing money to facilitate projects that have long been put off, others, like Commissioner Hood Richardson, said the county should stick to its previous “pay as you go” policy.

“What I’m talking about is a policy issue and where the Beaufort County suddenly crosses a line to borrow money to run government,” Richardson said in last Tuesday’s budget session. “When you start borrowing like this, it doesn’t seem like it ends.”

While Richardson referred to the manager’s proposed budget as “a fat budget,” Alligood has said the proposed 2017-18 budget provides for more services than the previous year — which includes the addition of expanded EMS services to Washington Township and funding for the Beaufort County Health Department to take over health care of jail inmates — though it comes in at $56,386,892, just under fiscal year 2016-17’s approved budget of $56.7 million.

Thursday’s budget workshop will take place at the County Administrative Offices at 5 p.m. The meeting is open to the public.